Activists say Happy the Bronx zoo elephant's 'rights are being violated' after officials refuse to release it to a sanctuary
An animal rights organization is trying to free an Indian elephant from the Bronx zoo as they believe zookeepers are violating the animal's rights. Speaking at the Bronx Supreme Court on Monday, lawyer Steven Wise of the Nonhuman Rights Project said that by refusing to let her go to a sanctuary where she can spend the rest of her days, the zoo is treating her unfairly. According to the NY Daily News, Wise said that animals like Happy don’t belong in New York City.
“She lives in a building for half the year. This is not how an elephant should be treated,” Wise said. Happy, who is 48-years-old has lived in captivity most of her life, according to the Project's website. "After almost a lifetime in captivity, thirteen years of which she has been forced to live alone, 48-year-old Happy deserves to be freed from her imprisonment at the Bronx Zoo and sent to an elephant sanctuary," reads the campaign to free her, called #FreeHappy.
The campaign says that forcing Happy to "live alone in a small unnatural environment, where she is prevented from exercising free will and engaging in her innate behaviors, causes physical and emotional suffering." The lawsuit demanding that her "legal personhood" be recognized was filed in 2018. They treat Happy as one of their clients.
However, the Bronx zoo firmly states that Happy is happy with them. "In short, Happy is happy where she is," said Ken Manning, a zoo lawyer to the publication. The zoo's spokesperson Mary Dixon said that the organization was exploiting the animal. "If NhRP [Nonhuman Rights Project] were truly concerned about the health or well-being of Happy they would not be exploiting her to keep their agenda of extending legal personhood to animals in the news."
The NhRP is also said to have offered to drop the suit if they agreed to send Happy to a sanctuary, which the zoo allegedly refused.